At 64, Gregg Allman says he “really digs” that he’s headlining the Ryman Auditorium for the first time in his storied career in Southern rock. Sixty years ago, he didn’t look forward to his visits to the venue quite as much.

“My grandma used to drag me down there, before I was in school, every Saturday night,” the Nashville native recalls. “Those church pews, you cannot get comfortable in. As a kid, I was like, ‘Oh, God, this is torture.’ ”

Allman actually hadn’t returned to the Ryman since his preschool days until last October, and it was a much more pleasant visit: He performed and was given a lifetime achievement award at the Americana Music Honors & Awards Show. It was a fitting time for him to be recognized for decades of work with the Allman Brothers Band and as a solo artist.

These days, he feels like a brand new life lies ahead.

About a year and a half ago, Allman had a liver transplant. He’d developed cancer following a lifelong battle with Hepatitis C. For decades, it was a battle Allman didn’t know he was fighting. He believes it stemmed from a tattoo he received in his early 20s, and was exacerbated by years of heavy drinking (Allman has now been sober since the mid-’90s). He wasn’t diagnosed with the disease until 1999, when he told his doctor he didn’t have any energy.

Click to see a gallery of Sunday Bonnaroo 2011 performers (this image of The Strokes' Julian Casablancas: Heather Byrd/The Tennessean).

The Strokes come off like self-aware sore thumbs on the Bonnaroo lineup -- particularly on one of the fest’s biggest stages, where pressure mounts to create a happening that’s bigger than the average gig.

“Am I supposed to say something in this pause?” frontman Julian Casablancas asked his band at the start of “Take it or Leave it.” “I just want to say, people of America … U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”

So no, the NYC rock band’s 2011 Bonnaroo set won’t go down as a life-changing, only-at-Bonnaroo moment, but it was still one of the most fun, to-the-point performances of the weekend.

A big chunk of the band’s hour onstage was derived from their 2001 debut Is This It and ’03 follow-up Room On Fire, and for the college crowd of Bonnaroo, this is the music of their youth -- possibly the tunes that inspired them to track down some more of this “rock music” on a file-sharing network. While Robert Plant was finishing up a set that included Led Zeppelin cuts, a fresh-faced crowd around the corner was losing its collective mind listening to “Last Nite” and “Someday” live.

The band was largely the same rail-thin, ludicrously cool group their fans discovered a decade ago. Some fans may have lost a bet on whether or not Casablancas would wear a leather jacket in the Tennessee heat. He did of course, though his mirrored sunglasses were actually practical -- the band faced off against a gorgeous sunset, dipping below the tent where Dan Auerbach and Dr. John were getting their Superjam on. That was likely awesome, but guitarists Albert Hammond Jr. and Nick Valensi were enough of a noodly spectacle for the rest of us.Continue reading →

Russell, who received the hall's first-ever musical excellence award, was a man of few but powerful words at Monday night's ceremony. He was inducted by Elton John, and after being called to the stage, thanked John for putting together their recent collaborative album, The Union.

"About a year ago, Elton found me in a ditch at the side of a highway of life and took me up to the high stages with big audiences, and treated me like a king," Russell said. "The only thing I can say is 'bless your heart.'"

Here's the full report from Jon Pareles/New York Times:

NEW YORK - Raspy voices, girl groups and ghoulish spectacle were celebrated by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at its 27th annual induction ceremony Monday night at the Waldorf-Astoria's Grand Ballroom.

It was a year of venerable rockers joining the hall: musicians in their 60s and early 70s with careers dating back as far as half a century. Video of the event will be presented at 9 p.m. Eastern on Sunday on the Fuse cable channel.

The raspy voices belonged to the songwriters Tom Waits, Dr. John and Neil Diamond. The girl-group catalog - with hits billed as the Crystals, Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, and under her own name - belonged to Darlene Love. And the ghoulish, black-rimmed eyes belonged to a pioneer of rock spectacle, Alice Cooper, who had a boa constrictor draped over his shoulders as he accepted his award.Continue reading →